BACKYARD BIRD COUNT, 2: Teaching the experts about birds... 
on Passport to Texas.
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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife 

The Eleventh Annual Great Backyard Bird Count takes place 
February 15 through 18. It's a citizen science project for 
birders of all ages, and Joshua Rose says it's great for 
beginners. 

And one of the reasons it was named the Backyard Bird Count 
is because that's where most people start paying attention to 
birds. That's where I started paying attention to birds -- in my 
own backyard. And the interest grew and developed from there. :10

Rose is a natural resource specialist at Bentsen Rio Grand 
Valley State Park. The park is part of the World Birding Center. 
The four-day, national event creates a real-time snapshot of
where the birds are across the continent. Rose says it's not 
unusual for an amateur birder who participates in this event 
to teach the experts a thing or two. The Audubon's Oriole is 
a good example.

The Sibley Guide to Birds shows the Audubon's Oriole as being 
restricted mainly to the southern tip of Texas, down here where 
Bentsen SP is located. This person was well north of that area, 
and was reporting a number of Audubon's Orioles, but they sent me 
photographs of it, and I wound up determining that the range of 
this oriole is actually much greater, and goes further north than 
is shown in the field guides. So, I certainly learned something 
new there, and I guess the folks who write the field guides have 
some things to learn, too. :26

With field guide, and bird list in hand, you, too can participate 
in this event. Participants can upload their findings to a special 
online database. 
 
Find a link to more information, including the data forms at 
passporttotexas.org.

That's our show ... For Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti.